The 66-year-old succeeded the late Mathieu Sprengers as KNVB president in August 2008, and he has now been re-elected for a further three-year term. "I feel really comfortable in this organisation," said Mr Van Praag, a UEFA Executive Committee member since 2009 and a former AFC Ajax president.

"As [association] president, you have to be the cement between the bricks, but in Zeist [the KNVB headquarters] we now have a really close team – and this is what you see in the committees where professionals and amateurs are represented," he added.

At the meeting, where it was decided that the KNVB sports campus in Zeist will be renovated, Mr Van Praag also received a UEFA HatTrick Award on behalf of the Dutch association from Allan Hansen, fellow UEFA Executive Committee member, president of the Danish Football Association (DBU) and chairman of the UEFA HatTrick Committee.

The KNVB was honoured with the HatTrick Award for the best social project – 'Voetbal voor iedereen' (Football for Everyone) – a scheme aiming to stimulate the acceptance of homosexual footballers in the Netherlands.

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